Current Events of the TechnoPolitical World 1994 to Present.
American Politics today. With a special focus on The Impact of Digital Technology on Politics, Civil Liberties , Elections, Lobbying, and Life. ( and some other stuff too.) {MY COMMENTARIES ARE THE WORDS IN THE BLUE FONT.}

Monday, May 27, 2002

"The Below are 'WebClippings' w/ Links , related to my project. I think you may enjoy scanning the articles below the get a sense of How Digital Technologies are changing the logistics of Political Activism.

These Clippings are the result of many long hours digging the Web for relevant articles to my topic. While not all of the Clippings here directly relate to E-Activism from the Citizen prospective, they all provide valuable 'Net-Culture' background. The more I get into the topic I see myself going into four main areas:

1. E-Letter Writing, Lobby Campaigns, and Mobilization for rallies or marches. The goal here is the Cause. How is the web directly activating people? Several articles and emails are below with statistics.2. The web as a Democratizing Information Portal.3. The web site, www.ewg.org , operated by the Environmental Working Group, a small nonprofit organization had and still is having a major impact on this years Farm Bill debate , and was highlighted in a recent NY Times article. Political Campaigns (4. where the goal is your vote.) As you will see from the clippings below, the 2000 race was the first national web race as well , and candidate websites were an important factor in many races.

"The study assessed the scale of two kinds of online users: "Cyber Groupies," who join online groups with no geographic boundaries, and "Local Groupies," who connect with groups based in their community."

"The resulting report -- "Online communities: Networks that nurture long-distance relationships and local ties" -- estimated that there are 90 million Cyber Groupies and 28 million Local Groupies. The study was conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org), a Washington, D.C.-based research group that studies the Internet's societal impact."

"Lee Rainie, the project's director, said the groups -- globally and locally -- use the Internet as an organizing tool. A classic example on the global scale, he said, is how the protests against the World Trade Organization were organized. But the same dynamic takes place locally when people use the Internet and e-mail to oppose neighborhood development or to call for a stop sign to be placed at the end of the block."

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Get Out the Vote: The Web has become a must tool for most political lobbyists. Some do it better than others

"The Congress Online Project, a research program by George Washington University and the Congressional Management Foundation, last year completed a study of the use of e-mail by members of Congress. While the study found that all but about two dozen House and Senate offices regularly used e-mail to communicate with constituents, it also found that Congress was unable to keep pace with a flood of electronic missives: Representatives received more than 48 million messages from constituents in 2000, up from 20 million in 1998, and the numbers are rising by an average of a million messages a month."

""The perennial debate over the future of American democracy reached new heights in the wake of Ross Perot's 1992 campaign, the centerpiece of which was his notion of "electronic town halls." The idea was an evocative and appealing one: to recreate the spirited gatherings of New England townspeople on a national scale through the medium of interactive technology. When asked about the electronic town hall in a television interview, he put it this way:"

"I would create an electronic town hall where, say, every week or so we would take a single major issue to the people. We would explain it in great detail and then we would get a response from the owners of the country - the people - that could be analyzed by congressional district so that the Congress - no if's, and's and but's - would know what the people want. Then the boys running around with briefcases representing special interests would be de-horned - to use a Texas term."" Ross Perot during his 1992 Presidential campaign

Dear Robb Halperin, January 2002 *************************** Action Network from Environmental Defense finding the ways that work *************************** CONTENTS: ACTION NETWORK AT WORK! 2001 YEAR IN REVIEW - Arctic Refuge Wins Reprieve; 100,000 Messages to Congress to Help Farmers Help the Environment;

Offshore Oil Drilling Moratorium Protects Most US Coast TAKE ACTION NOW - Canada Fights Oil Drilling Off Coast ECO-TIP - Stop Catalogues from Flooding your Mailbox ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE'S NEW WEBSITE ***************************** ACTION NETWORK AT WORK! SUCCESS STORIES AND UPDATES: Environmental Defense Action Network activists like you were very active in 2001. In a year marked by the tragic events of September 11, we also can share some notable successes in our efforts to take action online to protect the environment. Together, we now reach nearly 150,000 email activists who sent nearly 1 million pro-environment messages last year. Highlights in 2001 include: *** Arctic Refuge Wins Reprieve...For Now *** Last year, 200,000 messages from email activists helped ensure that the Bush Administration and special interests were unsuccessful in pushing a bad energy bill through the Senate that would have increased our dependence on oil, opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, and more. However, the oil industry and their allies will be at it again with a new push to open the Arctic to oil drilling. Act now to protect the Arctic Refuge and provide true energy security. Take action! http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/energy_senate/w5d3w54p78xwdb *** Helping Farmers Help the Environment *** Nearly 100,000 messages from email activists helped Environmental Defense lead the way in a national campaign to pass a conservation-oriented Farm Bill in Congress. The Senate has delayed consideration of a conservation-oriented Farm bill until early this year, allowing us to mobilize more public support for this important issue. Get more information about the Farm Bill debate and our plans for this year. Stay tuned! Click here: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/cdaLAPK1uPDO/farmbill_update

"Let the facts speak for themselves. That's what the D.C.-based Environmental Working Group hoped to do when they launched a Web site listing federal subsidies sent to every farm in America (www.ewg.org/farm). Now, with stories having appeared in news venues from the Bismarck Tribune to The New York Times, small farmers, environmentalists, and traders at the New York Cotton Exchange are all celebrating a recent Senate amendment to the $45-billion farm bill that would cap annual subsidies at $270,000 per farm. This is a blow to big industrial operations. The proposal's surprise adoption was helped along by the site, which reporters (who love easily searchable databases of local information) and members of Congress have praised."

"The Web has fundamentally changed the expectations of individuals in all kinds of institutions, including government agencies. In that spirit, the public would like to see their representatives on Capitol Hill put significantly more relevance and substance into the Web sites they provide for their constituents. That conclusion comes out of a series of focus groups conducted by the Congress Online Project.

Better communications needed between constituents and representatives

Participants in the focus groups – the study convened a total of 80 focus groups earlier this year in four U.S. cities – found the communications with their Congressional representatives uneven and inconsistent in their presentations of issues and voting records. The responses indicated many voters get frustrated by the general lack of communication with their elected representatives, except for the time of elections, hardly a new accusation. And when they did hear from their representatives, the content left a lot to be desired."

"The success of Ventura and other Internet-savvy candidates in 1998 wasn't the only evidence of the Internet's emerging political power. The release of the Starr report over the World Wide Web in the fall of 1998 increased overall Internet traffic by as much as 80 percent, and sparked a deluge of heated discussions on and off the Internet.

Alerting and mobilizing people entirely over the Internet, Jim Robinson, the publisher of the conservative Free Republic web site, sponsored an "Impeach Clinton" rally at the Washington Monument on Halloween. It attracted more than 4,000 people, and set a new standard for grassroots organizing by Internet. "I don't think anything like this has ever happened before, where thousands of people who didn't know each other get together in a place thousands of miles from home," Brian Buckley, counsel for the web site, told The Washington Post."

"Conversely, more than 500,000 Internet users, fed up with the impeachment process, signed a petition and pledged more than $10 million through the web site Move On.org to defeat the politicians they believe ignored voters' wishes to censure President Clinton and move on to other business. MoveOn.org ultimately collected more than $2 million and donated it to progressive candidates in Campaign 2000. Since the election, MoveOn.org has established itself as an effective advocacy group."http://www.us.net/indc/column2.htm#Impeachment

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"Most of them, for one thing, have been very badly designed. They usually have no cut-off date, source of background information, signature from the organization or individual who is sponsoring the alert, or instruction to post the alert only where appropriate. As a result, these alerts have caused a lot of disruption and annoyance all around the net, and it would not surprise me if the negative sentiment they cause outweighs the positive benefit of the actions they encourage."

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "The AFL-CIO opened itssecond annual Online Labor Day Festival, billed as the "biggesthometown Labor Day festival in the USA," at www.aflcio.org/laborday.It will run through Sept. 21, 2001."

"Cyberspace offers immense new possibilities for working peopleto make their voices heard and build 'community' in an entirely newway," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "This festival bringstogether the best of our culture and history in a powerful waythat's building for the future."

"The AFL-CIO's second annual Online Labor Day Festival is part ofa broader trend of cyber unionism, as unions find new ways to bringtogether working people on issues that are important to them.Today's unions are using technology to help new members organize,mobilizing members and activists, and celebrating union culture.

Many workers who are forming unions are using an online presenceto keep in contact with each other, and to update supporters.National INS agents, Delta flight attendants, SBC and Verizonworkers, part-time community college teachers in California, andSecurityLink workers isolated in trucks all day have all used theInternet and e-mail successfully to come together in unions.

Mobilization has reached new potential online -- activistse-mailed their Congressional representatives to oppose Fast Tracktrade legislation, commercial actors utilized email and theInternet to win their strike, and worker activists have used PalmPilots for political campaigns and member mobilization.

Some 60 percent of union members have computers, according to apoll by Peter D. Hart Research, Inc., conducted in January 2000.The survey also found that 74 percent of union members withcomputers have Internet access."

Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire

mmmmm

*** Email Activists Score Major Victory. California Passes Landmark Global Warming Bill *** Letters to the California State Assembly from Environmental Defense Action Network activists helped win approval of a bill limiting CO2 pollution from motor vehicles sold in the state. Heat trapping CO2 emissions from the millions of cars and trucks is a major source of greenhouse gas pollution in California. It's now onto the State Senate and the Governor. Stay tuned! For more information, click here: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/.1aLAPK1jcJl/ca_victory

"HonestReporting.com describes itself as "a fast-action Web site dedicated to ensuring that Israel receives fair media coverage." In fact, it is one of a whole new category of Web sites catering to both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that do what Washington lobbying groups have been doing for decades: general prefabricated mailing campaigns in an effort to sway opinion."

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"U.S. Web usage hits 54 percent Report: For first time, more" than half of population on Net"

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 — Internet use continued to grow rapidly last year, with new government data showing that the number of Americans using the Web in 2001 passed 50 percent of the population for the first time.

Jan 16 2002: "According to eMarketer, 55 percent of adult Internet users in the US visited a government website in 2001.

This statistic is from a study conducted by the Robert H Smith School of Business in the University of Maryland.

The study also found that 50 percent of online adults visited a state or local government site, and 33 percent visited a federal government site.

Sixteen percent conducted business with state or local government online, and 11 percent conducted business with federal government online.

In all categories, men were more likely than women to visit government websites and to conduct business on those sites. Suburban users were more likely than urban or rural users to visit a government site, but rural users were the most likely to conduct government business online."

"A leading technology testing lab says a software system that permits voting on ordinary desktop computers meets Federal Election Commission standards, a critical step for technology to be deemed usable for public elections.

The finding by Wyle Laboratories Inc. comes as many states and localities seek new technology to replace decades-old voting machines, including controversial punch-card systems. But it is uncertain whether the software package, called VoteHere Platinum Election System, will win approval from many states and localities in time for this fall's congressional, state and local elections."

"Overwhelmed by demands from the public that require manual searches for information, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services

(DES) has turned to the World Wide Web to provide spatial and map-based data. "One of the biggest challenges was trying to decide at what level to present the information," said Chris Simmers, OneStop program manager for the DES. "The use of GIS in-house with GIS-savvy people is one thing, but bringing that to the Web, to make it functional and attractive to the average user, required a major change in philosophy on our part."

Jan. 21 — Cyber-gripers, take heart. You and your "ThisCompanySucks.com" Web site have a patron. Free speech lawyer Ed Harvilla is worried that too many "sucks" domains have been taken away from owners and given to their target companies.

Jan. 18 — Women are logging onto the Internet at home at a faster rate than the overall Web population, according to a report released Friday. Web measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings said the number of female Web surfers at home rose 9 percent in the United States, from 50.4 million in December 2000 to 55 million in December 2001.

THE OVERALL NUMBER of active home Web surfers grew only 6 percent, from 98.6 million in December 2000 to 104.8 million in December 2001.Nielsen/NetRatings added that 49.8 million U.S. men surfed the Web at home in December 2001, an increase of only 3 percent from the previous year.

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~`This next one is really unique. The only article in my knowledge to mention essentialism, Rushdie and cyberspace’s concept of democracy, ~~~TechnoPolitical

Salman Rushdie's provocative novel, Midnight's Children and the Internet. Rushdie's fictional devices for talking about the society of India bear a strong affinity to descriptions of the Internet. Although we will occupy ourselves only briefly with Rushdie's novel, it will help us show how the Internet reveals important aspects of society and democracy. It is ironic that we can use the Internet to inform us about the democracy of the very societies that gave birth to this information and communication technology - that we can use the virtual or artificial as a model for understanding, and perhaps improving, the actual.

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The Digital Tea Leaves of Election 2000: The Internet and the Future of Presidential Politics

" There's a common presumption that the Internet has brought with it the promise of openness, democracy, the end of inequities in the distribution of information, and human self-fulfillment. Any such conclusion would be premature.

The digital era has ambused and beguiled us all. Its first-order impacts are being assimilated, but its second-order implications are not. Powerful institutions perceive their interests to be severely threatened by the last decade of technological change and by the shape of the emergent 'information economy'. Elements of their fight back are identified, particularly extensions to legal protectionism, and the active development and application of technologies that protect data from prying eyes.

Many of the features that have ensured a progressive balance between data protection and freedom of access to data have already been seriously eroded. The new balance that emerges from the current period of turmoil may be far less friendly to public access and more like a New Dark Ages."

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Extending the Public Sphere through Cyberspace: The Case of Minnesota E-Democracy

"Over the last decade a lot has been said about the possibilities of the Internet enhancing the public sphere. The two-way, decentralized communications within cyberspace are seen as offering the basis by which to facilitate rational-critical discourse and hence develop public opinion that can hold state power accountable. However, this potential has largely gone unrealized. Instead, cyber-interaction is dominated by commercial activity, private conversation, and individualized forms of politics. In this paper I investigate how the present Internet may be used to more fully facilitate the public sphere. To do this I evaluate Minnesota E-Democracy, an Internet-based initiative that attempts to develop online public discourse. Drawing upon a model of the public sphere developed from Jürgen Habermas' work, I show how the initiative structures discourse to overcome many of the problems that presently limit democratic deliberation online. While some significant limitations do remain, I conclude that Minnesota E-Democracy provides a basis from which online deliberative initiatives can, given adequate resourcing and further research, extend the public sphere through the Internet."

Post-Election 2000 Survey on Internet Use for Civics and PoliticsDecember 4, 2000

"Highlights of a nationwide survey of 1,006 American adults, conducted for the Democracy Online Project between November 21-26, 2000, by Thomas Opinion Research, in conjunction with the TNS Intersearch Omni Poll (margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points):

The most general findings:

- More than one in three Americans (35%) uses the Internet to get information about politics, campaigns, or issues in the news. In 1998, 25% did. Thirty percent of today's "online public," reported getting public affairs information from the Internet "almost every day" and 35% do so Aoccasionally."

- Four in ten Internet users (40%) Bor 14% of the total adult populationB say the Internet was important in providing them with information that helped them decide how to vote in the November election. In 1998, 36%, or 9% of the total population, responded similarly. Men relied on the Net more than women, 44% to 33% saying it was an important source of help in deciding their vote. Half of the youngest users (ages 18-34; 491%) relied on the Net considerably, and 45% of those ages 35-44.

The following figures are percentages of the 55% of survey respondents who said they use the Internet. (Note: this is somewhat higher than the 44% of Americans online according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's August 2000 study.)

- When it comes to politics and public affairs, Net users turn to e-mail more than the Web. And they prefer humor to action."

"The net has shrunk ever so slightly. For only the second time ever, an authoritative monthly survey of the number of sites on the net has found fewer sites online than in the previous month. The fall has been put down to a drop in the number of registered domains. Despite the drop, the net remains hugely popular, and there are now over 36m sites in cyberspace."

" The most popular form of information gathering is simply accessing the day’s news – about three-fifths of Internet users of different races have ever gotten the news online.

However, Asian-American users are much more likely to have made getting the news online a part of their daily lives.

Just over a third (34%) of users get the news online on a typical day. In comparison, 22% of white users get the news daily, along with 15% of African-American users and 20% of Hispanics online.

Asian-American users are also more likely than other Internet users to have gotten news on the financial markets, sought travel information, looked up information about their hobbies and gotten political news on a daily basis. Much like others with Internet access, online Asian-American users frequently turn to the Internet to find the answer to a question. Fully three-quarters of Asian-American users have done so at one time or another, and about a fifth do so on a typical day."

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Features Posted December 21, 2001

Net News Lethargy"Most sites fail to make use of the medium's main strength – speed"

"For purposes of this story, the 15 most-trafficked news Web sites were examined on a routine basis during the past three weeks and more closely as breaking news happened. Those top 15 sites were chosen based on Jupiter Media Metrix' September ratings of news sites with the most unique visitors.

"Roughly 20 percent of the 7.3 million homes in the New York metropolitan television market are not hooked up for cable or satellite service. Many homes have only some of their sets wired for cable and depend on the broadcast signal for other sets."

"Widespread use of government Web sites has laid a broad foundation of public support for e-government; i.e., using the Internet and other technologies to increase the availability of services and information. About three in four (73%) Americans believe that the new administration should put e-government at the top of its to-do list. Of those who have used the Internet to access government services or information, 80% say that President Bush should make government a high priority, but even a majority of those who may not benefit directly believe that e-government is of the utmost importance—67% of adults who do not use the Internet believe that e-government should be a top priority for the new president."

"Voting patterns also show a declining religious right. Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, said that only 15 million of the 19 million religious conservatives who should have voted went to the polls in 2000. "We may be seeing to some degree some return to the sidelines of previously involved religious conservatives," he said.""

"Moreover, the validity of research systems used to count site traffic has remained an open question. But in the absence of a standard industry metric, research companies such as Jupiter Media Metrix and Nielsen/NetRatings became the Web's de facto scorekeepers, and their monthly rankings can still make or break a company that depends solely on advertising for its livelihood. The most common criticisms of these measurement scales have to do with their limited panel sizes and the lack of data about people who use the Web from work, given that many companies will not install tracking software on their networks. As a result, site visits from the workplace are underreported. ………… The most common criticisms of these measurement scales have to do with their limited panel sizes and the lack of data about people who use the Web from work, given that many companies will not install tracking software on their networks. As a result, site visits from the workplace are underreported."

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"Coming to a power socket near you: Internet, telephony"

"S'pore Power arm to launch commercial trials of new communications technology"

(SINGAPORE) Singapore is all set to be the first country in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan, to commercially try out a new breakthrough in communications technology.

By channelling data traffic through the existing network of electrical cables and wires, the technology will allow users to simply plug into their electrical wall sockets to access services such as fast Internet and telephony.

All they need is basically an adaptor - which also functions as a modem - to plug into a power socket. The technology also offers an alternative to home networking without having to undertake messy rewiring.

"While the Internet is a powerful tool for business efficiency, it can also be a massive drain on productivity when misused. Different sources estimate that American businesses are losing anywhere from $1 billion (Newsweek) to tens of billions of dollars (IDC) because of Internet misuse, which is simply defined as non-work-related use of the Internet while on company time.

In 2001, Gallup found that the average employee spends 75 minutes per workday day on the Internet. Given the Department of Labor's finding that the average cost of employing an American worker is $20 per hour (including wage, insurance, and benefits), this means that companies are losing an average of $125 a week per worker."

"AUSTRALIAN Internet users have matured from curious surfers to time savers who use the world wide web to catch up on news, pay bills and do their shopping.

A Neilsen/Netrating study of 10,000 Australians who use the Internet at home found users were primarily interested in accessing sites which supplied new information or allowed users to bank or shop on-line.

Andrew Reid, a senior analyst with Neilsen, said in the past Australians had spent more time on the net but had mostly surfed with no specific focus. "They've now migrated or matured from general surfing habits to one where they're actually using the Internet for real purposes which will save them time and effort," Mr Reid said.

Mr Reid said Internet usage was up 8.6 per cent in Australia over the past 12 months but the time users spent on line had fallen.

In Campaign 2000, challengers who won tight congressional races against incumbents also won the battle of the Web, according to a post-election review of congressional candidate Web sites by e- advocates and Juno Online Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: JWEB). The study found that in the 8 toss-up U.S. House and Senate races where a challenger won, an overwhelming majority -- 75 percent -- employed a superior Web strategy, as defined by online voters in a February 2000 e-advocates/Juno survey and candidate rankings on top search engines. Additionally, in seven out of the eight races, the winning challenger raised less money than the losing incumbent -- an anomaly in the results of all congressional races nationwide.

Among winning challengers in toss-up House and Senate races, all had Web sites that provided information and features desired by voters online, including issue statements, campaign e-mail addresses, volunteer and online contribution opportunities, and online voter registration capabilities. Eighty-eight percent of winning challengers provided issue statements that could provide the basis for voters to compare candidates, a feature desired by 79 percent of Internet users. Sixty-three percent of winning challengers provided campaign e-mail addresses, a feature of interest to 73 percent of Internet users. All victorious challengers provided Internet users with the ability to volunteer with their campaigns online, a feature identified as important by 13 percent of Internet users, and 88 percent of winning challengers gave Internet users the ability to make campaign contributions online, a feature of interest to 7 percent of Internet users. Thirty-eight percent of winning challengers offered online voters the ability to register to vote online, a feature of interest to 42 percent of Internet users.

"Today's savvy candidates aren't just going door-to-door, they're connecting with voters desktop to desktop," said Pam Fielding, principal, e- advocates. "With 59 percent of U.S. adults now online, no candidate in a tight race can afford to ignore the Web -- or the needs of e-voters," said Nicole Duritz, also a principal, e-advocates.

The firms also tested the ranking of candidate sites with top search engines -- an important strategy for campaigns to connect with online voters. The search engine test found that 75 percent of winning challengers in tight races achieved a first-page, search-engine ranking with at least three of the four major engines as identified by Media Metrix -- Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Lycos. Reviewers gave candidates a successful rating with a search engine if, after entering their first and last names into the search field, the search engine provided a link to the candidates' official campaign Web sites on the first page of the search results.

In seven out of the eight races analyzed by e-advocates and Juno, the winning challenger raised less money than the losing incumbent. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data analyzed by U.S. PIRG and reported in an unrelated study, only seven percent of winning congressional candidates nationwide raised less money than their opponents. Michael Cornfield, George Washington University Associate Research Professor and Research Director of George Washington University's Democracy Online Project, observed that the findings suggest a strong Internet strategy can "help financial underdogs gain better footing."

"Election 2000 will go down in history as the first presidential cycle where the Net played a decisive role in political campaigns. Candidates and elected officials who underestimated the virtual voter were likely to suffer for it," said Roger Stone, Vice President of Juno Online Services and director of the Juno Advocacy Network, Juno's Washington D.C.-based public interest and political advertising division.

The U.S. Senate race for Washington State remains undecided and, for this reason, is not included in the analysis.

About e-advocates

e-advocates, based in Washington, DC, is a full-service Internet advocacy consulting firm dedicated to helping public affairs and advocacy organizations harness the power of the Internet to achieve legislative and political priorities. Principals Pam Fielding and Nicole Duritz are leading experts in the field of cyberpolitics. Fielding is coauthor of the recently published book, The Net Effect: How Cyberadvocacy is Changing the Political Landscape, which highlights how the Internet is reconnecting citizens with government. e-advocates is a subsidiary of Capitol Advantage, the premier innovator of Internet-based political tools and services. Through the use of its products, hundreds of organizations have promoted their agenda and influenced the political process by engaging individuals in political dialogue. Survey results can be viewed at http://www.e-advocates.com/survey . To reach Pam Fielding and Nicole Duritz for comment, please call 202/955-3001.

About Juno

Juno Online Services, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet access to millions of computer users throughout the United States. Founded in 1996, the company provides multiple levels of service, including free basic Internet access, billable premium dial-up service, and (in certain markets) high-speed broadband access. Juno's revenues are derived primarily from the subscription fees charged for its billable premium services, from the sale of advertising, and from various forms of electronic commerce.

Based on its total of 3.7 million active subscribers during the month of September 2000, Juno is currently the nation's third largest provider of dial- up Internet services, after AOL and EarthLink. As of September 30, 2000, Juno had approximately 12.77 million total registered subscriber accounts.

.... {The} campaign was the result of one concerned citizen's recognition of the devastating effects Congress' failure to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would have on her community.

VAWA provides vital resources, including hotlines, shelters, and other services to women and children who are the victims of family violence. With just 37 working days left in the session, the VAWA reauthorization was stalled in the 106th Congress and considered unlikely to pass.

In just 12 weeks, Irene Weiser and e-advocates helped move a stagnant issue, delivering two major votes and doubling funding for the Violence Against Women Act.

"THE demand for uncovering family histories is proving almost as popular as sex on Internet hit lists, and likely to grow even greater as the 1901 census for England and Wales is published online today."

In his new book, Lawrence Lessig warns of threats to innovation as the Internet becomes increasingly controlled by businesses, the technology they develop and the laws they push.

In his 1999 book, "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," Lessig warns of threats to free speech and privacy as the Internet becomes increasingly controlled by businesses, the technology they develop and the laws they push.

"The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World," published by Random House, is in many respects a sequel: Lessig argues that innovation is under threat by those same efforts.

One tendency Lessig worries about is the development of software techniques that would let Internet service providers prioritize — and perhaps charge more for — certain traffic over others.

"Bulk e-mail providers will send a company's ad to one million e-mail addresses for as little as $200, and consumers have to date been mildly annoyed but not really outraged. Regulators, meanwhile, have gone after only the most egregious forms of e-mail deception."

"Widespread use of government Web sites has laid a broad foundation of public support for e-government; i.e., using the Internet and other technologies to increase the availability of services and information. About three in four (73%) Americans believe that the new administration should put e-government at the top of its to-do list. Of those who have used the Internet to access government services or information, 80% say that President Bush should make government a high priority, but even a majority of those who may not benefit directly believe that e-government is of the utmost importance—67% of adults who do not use the Internet believe that e-government should be a top priority for the new president."